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DHAKA, Dec 8: Seventeen people were killed, and more than 300 injured in a series of bomb blasts at four cinemas on Saturday evening in the district town of Mymensingh, some 150 kms north of here.
The bombs went off in and around the movie theatres at 6 pm, when the auditoriums were packed with nearly 2,000 men, women and children during the Eid holiday.
Forty of the critically injured victims were taken to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital and Mymensingh Combined Military Hospital, the district administration told newsmen.
The attacks took place amidst the countrywide Army-led operation against violent criminals. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police however arrested 21 people on suspicion. The troops have cordoned off the damaged cinemas.
OTHER BLASTS: Earlier in June 2001, a bomb explosion killed 22 people and injured more than 100 at a local office of a political party in Narayanganj, 15 kms of the Dhaka city. Besides, in September 2001, bombs wounded 30 people at a circus in the country’s south-western district of Satkhira, and nine people were killed and 50 injured in a bomb blast during an open-air concert in Dhaka in 2000.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Minister for Home Affairs Altaf Hossain Chowdhury and senior police officials visited Mymensingh town this afternoon. The PM told local reporters that it could be an act of sabotage by certain quarters and a judicial inquiry committee would be set up to probe into the ghastly incident.
“We still have no clue about the perpetrators of the criminal incident. The police is investigating into the issue to find out the culprits involved in this cruel act,” the home minister however told newsmen at a press conference in Dhaka on his return from Mymensingh this evening.
Chowdhury also protested “strongly” against a Reuter news report released last night, in which he was quoted as saying, “the attacks could be the work of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network or another terrorist group.”
Replying to a query, the minister emphatically said, “There is no Al Qaeda network in Bangladesh.”
